Inspired by a line in a poem by Luis Alberto Urrea. When I read that line, I immediately understood its meaning. It reminded me of always having to search for my words in Spanish. It brought back memories of assimilating as a child, where speaking English took priority. The sculpture embodies the process of having to stop, think, and pull the words from my mouth. Even then, they often don’t come out right—sometimes they emerge as a hybrid word, caught between English and Spanish, also known as Spanglish. The act of pulling out the tongue shaped ticket, stuck and hesitant, mirrors the inability and frustration to fully express what’s on my mind. That feeling of navigating two languages is at the heart of Lost My Tongue in Spanish, a work that visualizes my process of absorbing, interpreting, and inverting how I speak.